Tag Archives: Foliage

Except for one freeze that lasted two days this last winter, here in the greater Seattle area you could safely say that ours was the winter that never happened. Consequently, between the release of Fine Foliage in the spring, my own business and my nursery work, there was no real need for me to update much of my garden for spring and summer this year, it was looking pretty darn good.

Then, in the waning days of August, I received a call from a magazine wanting to come and shoot in my teeny-tiny garden and my containers in 10 days! Scurry, scurry, scurry, rally the troops, plant, plant, plant, clean, clean, clean!

It turned out better than I ever imagined and we celebrated with an impromptu party on a lovely August evening that coincided with my birthday. It couldn’t have been a more perfect gift!

Now as autumn has placed its boot firmly in the rain and mud, this short burst of wild activity, color and enjoyment of the garden is now at its end and I trudge damply toward the clean up and pre-winterization of the garden and containers.

The one thing I did promise myself however, was that I would post a summer wrap-up of the finished (When is it ever finished?) garden for this season to share all of the hard work my friends and I put it in, in such a short time frame.

My special thanks go to Heather Little Bradley and Ryan LaPointe for their invaluable contributions in such a mad-cap few days!

Now, as it fades into the cool, low light of the shorter, wetter days of fall, I can move on to appreciating it in a whole new way. At least until chaos reigns again this spring. Plans are already brewing! 🙂

Enjoy the wrap-up! Click on photos to enlarge.

I hope this end of summer garden wrap-up tour inspired you to plan for spring and summer in your own garden for 2014. Unfortunately there are just too many plants here to list them all by name, but if you want any specifics, I am happy to oblige.

I suppose I should have amended that title to include “New to ME This Year” because many of you will say “What? – I’ve had that one for years!” It’s not really a new plant on the market at all. Its been around a while. But, I just haven’t warmed up to STOKESIA ‘Peachie’s Pick’ (or the Stokes Aster), until now.

I think it was the foliage pairing that did it. And me being the “Fine Foliage” girl that I am, well…ya know! The fat lavender blooms looks so great with that soft coral edge of the Acalypha wilkesiana that it just made me fall in love. What a fantastic bloomer it’s turned out to be in late summer.

Whether it is because of their inherent elegance, grace and majestic beauty…

Or their winter interest….

Or Autumn color against a blue sky…

Or magnificent flower…..

Foliage that can’t be denied…..

A conifer of striking color and dimension…..

Or simply a sacred place to rest and contemplate the world…

Trees are magical, mystical and ever present beauties that we dare not take for granted. They are the life blood of this amazing planet that give us the oxygen to fill our lungs, paint our hearts with color and shade and heat our homes.

Planting a tree is the ultimate act of positivity about the future.

To see more fabulous blog posts from the other Lords and Ladies of the Roundtable please follow these links below:

Yesterday, I went and took a long therapeutic walk through the Bellevue Botanical Garden. The flowers were just barely starting to peek up, mostly the earliest Hellebores. But, today the truest star was the moss in all its myriad of textures and colors. Being a native here, you would think that it would be boring and tiresome to see this all the time, but I never get bored with it. Just look at the sculpture that Mother Nature left us to admire.

I tried to give you some good detail to admire, but trust me, whatever device you are looking at this on could not possibly do justice to the depth of color and texture here.

I loved how this rick sat all by itself, ENGULFED.

A view down into the fern gully ravine from the trestle bridge above.

I decided there was no other word than the made up one that I thought of for this that fit it nearly as well- “Entwangled”.

Just look at the diversity in this one small space positively TEEMING with life!!

A very old Flowering Cherry tree, most expertly pruned.

Now you understand why Seattleites love their coffee SO much, if we stand still long enough in one place here this is what happens! 🙂